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I’m a bit late with this news as it actually broke last week ….but I thought I’d include it in the blog for completeness and on the off-chance anyone wanted my take on some of the changes 🙂
Hyatt Gold Passport has announced that, from 1 August 2016, 106 of its hotels will be moving up or down in Gold Passport category meaning that 106 Hyatt hotels will see the cost of an award night change on that date. Fortunately for Gold Passport fans there seems to be more good news than bad news on this occasion (I don’t get to type that too often nowadays!) so there isn’t any immediate reason to panic.
The cost of an award night isn’t changing so the number of Gold Passport Points you need to book an award at any given category of hotel will be staying the same:
What is changing is the category that some hotels find themselves in.
The Headline Changes
- There are no new category 6 or category 7 properties
- 50 properties are going up in award category
- 56 properties are going down in award category
- 1 property is going up by more than one category
- 1 property is going down by more than one category
The Properties Changing Categories
The full list of properties changing categories can be found on the Hyatt website
The notable changes are as follows:
Going Down
- Hyatt Centric Miami Beach is dropping down two categories from 6 to 4 which will see the property go from costing 25,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points to just 15,000 Gold Passport Points per night. This hotel is only a little over a year old (I blogged about it when it opened) so I wonder what’s happened to see such a significant drop in category?
- The one hotel moving up more than one category is the Hyatt Place Asheville Downtown
- The Park Hyatt Chennai will be moving from a category 2 to a category 1 property which I find somewhat incredible. If you read the discussions on Flyertalk and read the reviews elsewhere online you’ll see that this a well liked property…..and now we can book it for just 5,000 Gold Passport Points per night!
Park Hyatt Chennai – image courtesy of Hyatt
- The Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur goes from a category 4 to a category 3 property and, for purely selfish reasons, this makes me pretty happy – I’m looking at booking a trip to KL in the near future and I had already earmarked the Grand Hyatt as my most likely stop.
- The Hyatt Regency Perth is moving down to category 3 (12,000 Gold Passport Points per night) which makes it great value for anyone looking for a base before exploring the amazing wine-country south of the city (Margaret River etc…) – it’s even rated 13th out of 77 hotels in Perth on TripAdvisor.
Going Up
- Out of all the changes, the worst news for me was that the Grand Hyatt at Dallas/Fort Worth airport will be moving up to a category 4 property – this hotel is directly linked to the airport and it’s a great stopping off point for American Airlines flyers like me.
- Hyatt Centric The Loop Chicago will be going up to category 5 and has therefore just been crossed off my list for my next trip to watch the Bears – I’m not handing over 20,000 valuable Gold Passport points for a Hyatt Centric when I can stay at the Park Hyatt for just 5,000 points/night more.
Hyatt Centric The Loop Chicago – image courtesy of Hyatt
None of the other increases are really that onerous – we’re only seeing 4 properties moving up to category 5 and 4 properties move up to category 4……so most of the changes are at the lower ends of the spectrum.
Bottom Line
I’m always looking for the bad news when I hear that a hotel chain is changing the award categories of its hotels but, on this occasion, I think it’s safe to say that we got away with it. Hyatt hasn’t done anything particular objectionable and, overall, Gold Passport members will probably be a little better off after 1 August than they were before.
Don’t forget that the changes will be going through from 1 August so, if a property you’re thinking of booking is going up in category, book now to lock in the cheaper rate. Conversely, if you’re looking to book a property that’s going down in category, try to hold off until after the category changes are processed.
